How do I direct MC to target ONLY the tunes on my external hard drive, and not, go after anything else on my PC?
Easy. You can choose to manually import files, or use the Auto-Import system. It is configured here:
Tools -> Options -> Library and Folders -> Configure Auto Import. You can add any folders you'd like, and exclude any folders you'd like. FYI, the auto-import system does not run "regularly" on a timed basis. It uses the file system monitoring scheme built into Windows to only activate when files have changed in a watched folder.
Also, can I use MC to sync my music with my iPhone? I think the answer is yes, but what I'm more interested in, is, will MC advise me when an iPhone update is required or do I still have to use iTunes for that chore? And I need to know specifically exactly what I'm going to need iTunes to do for me if/when I make the switch to MC.
Not directly. Apple locks down their iDevices and only allows them to be synced using iTunes. So, you must sync any modern Apple iDevice using iTunes, and MC cannot access it (the database is encrypted). There are two basic ways to accomplish this task, depending on your needs:
1. The easiest, is using the convenient
MCiS plugin developed by prod on these forums. This tool will essentially keep your iTunes library in sync with your MC library. You can select playlists and views in the interface to sync only a subset of the MC library over to iTunes if you'd like. This tool is nice because it syncs ratings and things like that back and forth with iTunes, which allows you to rate songs on your phone and have these ratings "travel back" to MC next time you sync.
However, this option does have some limitations. It works by importing your files into iTunes directly from where they live on disk (the same files MC sees and uses). This might be convenient, but as you found, iTunes doesn't like big libraries. It also forces you to make sure you already have all of your files in an iOS-compatible format, because the system cannot transcode the files automatically on sync.
2. Because of those limitations, that's not the way I do it. Instead, I use MC's built-in Handheld sync functionality. You can easily define in MC a "handheld" which is really just a folder on your hard drive somewhere. I define my iTunes library as a handheld in MC. With a few clever settings, you can build an auto-generating "shuffle" that syncs a new selection of songs to this library each time you click "sync" in MC.
For example, I have mine set up to sync a bunch of "Smartlists" that make sure I have a nice, but randomly changing, selection of music on my phone. I have a "300 of my 4&5 star rated tracks" list, a "pick a bunch of random songs from these genres in these proportions" list, a manually built list (for manually adding full albums and the like), and a "the last 200 or so tracks added to my library" list (to get new stuff). All of these lists are set to sync to my "handheld" in MC, which is really just my iTunes Media folder. When I sync, MC goes through this folder and deletes any files that AREN'T in the list, and adds any new files that ARE in the list (making the contents of the folder match the sync list, which is generated on the fly based on my playlists).
This is convenient because I can make sure the total file size (by carefully crafting my smartlists) synced is always about what I want transferred to my phone (mine runs around 18-20GB, since I have a 32GB iPhone). I also am able to use the auto-conversion features of the Handheld system in MC. It automatically converts unsupported and high-bitrate files over to smaller (and compatible) MP3 files, which saves space and allows me to still use FLAC files and the like in my main library.
Then, after I "sync" MC to this folder, I run
iTLU to update iTunes. This is a free application for Windows that goes through your iTunes library and makes it match what is actually on disk. It imports new files it finds, and removes entries for any missing files. iTunes runs much better when it only has a handful of files in it. Plus, configuring the sync in iTunes is easy then... I just tell it to sync EVERYTHING to my phone. The only stuff that ever shows up in iTunes are these "special files".
The downside is, of course, that you give up some hard drive space for these "duplicate" files. For me, 20GB is a very small price to pay. It would be much more convenient if MC could automatically call the iTLU application when it was done with the handheld sync, but they haven't added that feature yet. If you are interested in more details, just ask, and I can explain exactly how I work this, including the script I use to sync my folders over via iTLU (I use the command line UI for iTLU, called by a script, to automate the process more).
Playlists from iTunes: I got quite a few of them. Can they be imported into MC? If yes, how exactly?
I don't know. I positive there is a way, but I'm not sure, because I've only ever used iTunes the way described above... Someone else will have to answer.
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Topic: General New User Questions (Read 5735 times)